On 13 May 2021 four members of an organised crime group appeared at Bristol Crown Court and received a combined 12 years in prison for conspiring to import and supply cannabis.[1][2] Led by 29-year-old Rupert Kelly of Broadwindsor, Dorset, the group planned to collect the drug from a yacht moored off the coast, ferry it ashore in Cornwall in a rigid-hulled inflatable boat and distribute it across Britain.[1][2]
Kelly, who took what the court called a leading role, was jailed for five years and six months.[1][2] Daniel Parrot, 48, of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, who was to buy fuel drums as cover for moving the cannabis on the boat, received three and a half years.[1] Gavin Challis, 46, of Nazeing, Essex, who was to arrange the purchase and supply of the cannabis, received three years, and Jason Tongue, 47, also of Hucknall, who was to meet the boat at the landing, received 18 months.[1][2]
The men plotted between 29 February and 1 June 2020 over the EncroChat encrypted network under code names including Organic Shoe, Mushroom Waffle and Bluff Pizza; investigators also found images of the boat and of the landing sites.[1][2] The plan was interrupted, partly by the coronavirus pandemic, before any cannabis reached Britain.[1][2] Officers recovered more than 25,000 pounds in cash and found four cannabis plants and six seedlings at Challis’s home.[1]
